Fall is Upon Us!

Barbara Stegenga
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

bstegenga@bio.unc.edu

It really came clear to me that it's the fall season when we were descending towards the airport coming home from a trip last month. Flying over the trees made me step back from thinking of my busy schedule and look at the beauty below me. The leaves were starting to change from green to reds and golds and the air was turning cool and dry enough to sleep with the windows open. I thought of all the changes happening to the trees and animals in preparation for winter. Many of us are getting ready (or thinking of getting ready) for the winter and holidays too. Final exams are now just a few weeks away for us and then it'll be time to gear up for spring. Time has flown by and before we know it, we'll be together again in June at ABLE between summer vacations and summer school. Going to ABLE helps me slow down a bit and think of what I'd like to do to help my students learn and get excited about Biology.

Every year I get excited about biology during an ABLE meeting. I felt that way after walking on the nature trails on a guided tour the afternoon I arrived at the University of Toronto in Mississauga this summer. The weather was perfect for looking at trees and other vegetation. I was intrigued by the simple but wonderful experiments we used studying fermentation in yeast during Janice Bonner's workshop, and eager to dress up as a dragonfly in Fred Singer's Dragonfly Ecology workshop. I also really enjoyed using fine art to look at ecological concepts in Marielle Hoefnagels Museum Ecology workshop. I tried it out with my students in lecture and they also liked it because "it was different". They liked connecting biology with art.

Do any of you feel that way after you attend an ABLE conference? Do you come back and want to share some new ideas with colleagues about what you learned? Have you incorporated material you picked up at ABLE into your labs? If so, please don't hesitate to share it with us. This newsletter covers only a small part of what ABLE can offer you and your labs. There are several great workshops offered at each conference in addition to outstanding posters, entertaining lectures and good food so you are always satiated. There are many opportunities to speak with other lab educators about what you do and how you can improve things or help others. You'll find some resources in this issue of Labstracts in addition to past and upcoming conference information. If you have articles or material you would like to contribute, please contact me and I'll do my best to include it in the next issue. In the meantime try to slow down enough to watch the leaves or maybe the snow fall, or just enjoy the cooler months wherever you are.

Enjoy the newsletter and I'll see you next year!

Barbara Stegenga